Hello World
by Laura Schiller
Summary: Inspired by a Lady Antebellum song. Masaya reflects on faith, forgiveness and renewal.


Hello World

By Laura Schiller

Copyright: _Tokyo Mew Mew_ is the property of Reiko Yoshida and Mia Ikumi.

_"Every day I drive by a little white church.  
It's got these little white crosses like angels in the yard.  
Maybe I should stop on in … say a prayer …  
maybe talk to God like He is there …  
Oh, I know He's there …_

_Well, hello world, how've you been?  
Good to see you, my old friend.  
Sometimes I feel as cold as steel,  
broken like I'm never gonna heal.  
I see a light … little grace … little faith unfurl.  
Well, hello world …"_

- Lady Antebellum 

On his way home, Masaya's train passed by a little white Christian church with a cemetery park – not an unusual thing in such a multicultural city as Tokyo. He'd never gone inside; being a pragmatist by nature, he could never bring himself to believe in multiplying loaves and wishes, walking on water or resurrection from the dead. Like many modern Japanese, he had simply gone to a temple with his foster-parents every New Year's Eve without worrying about what it all meant.

Now, however, in the aftermath of his final confrontation with Deep Blue, Masaya could not help but consider the subject of religion with new eyes. There were more things in this world than his philosophy had dreamed of.

He stepped off the train.

The inside of the church was empty, shadowy, except for several tiny candles burning on a shelf in the corner. The seats – 'pews', he remembered – were made of wood, with shelves in the back for the Bibles and hymn books. The walls were white; he saw several paintings of beautiful people with golden haloes, presumably saints. The altar, a table covered in a red cloth with a bouquet of lilies, was the focus of the room. Above it was a life-sized statue: a frail-looking Caucasian man nailed to a crucifix. His hair and beard were brown, his eyes blue; he wore a crown made of some spiky dead plant. The expression on his face was tired, but quite serene.

Masaya knew the basics of the myth from school. This character, a spiritual leader from Israel named Jesus Christ, had been executed for claiming to be the son of God. Three days later, he had allegedly risen from the dead. He had done it willingly, cross and all, and such a sacrifice from an innocent person who was both human and divine had ensured that from then on, everyone who believed in the story would be as immortal as he was, and go to Heaven when they died. At least, that was how Masaya had understood it. His textbook wasn't quite clear on how that was supposed to work.

He wondered if he could ask Zakuro. She was a Christian – at least, they all assumed she was, since in times of personal trouble, she could often be found in church. But she was so private about it, none of them had dared to question her, except possibly Mint.

Masaya wondered if Jesus Christ had really lived, and if so, whether he had been merely a delusional fanatic or a genuine son of God. As far as he knew, there was no evidence of either one, besides the accounts of his disciples who had obviously worshipped him.

At any rate, they quoted him as saying some very true and lovely things, things which even a twenty-first-century agnostic could appreciate. He sat down in one of the pews and, unable as always to resist the call of the nearest book, picked it up and flipped to a random page. It was the New Testament in Japanese.

"_But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."_

Masaya knew how it felt to be on both sides of that. He had heard his own voice shouting maledictions at the girl he loved. He had seen his own hands stab Kisshu with a sword and close around Ichigo's throat. He had felt Ichigo's overwhelming love for him even as she aimed her Mew weapon at his heart.

Who was the enemy? Was Deep Blue a foreign entity posessing an innocent host, or was he the suppressed dark side of Masaya himself? They had shared a body, shared memories. But they had looked and spoken differently, and while one had been millions of years old, the former leader of an entire species, inventor of Mew Aqua and would-be ruler of Earth, the other was a thirteen-year-old kendo team captain with no ambitions beyond studying environmental science and marrying Ichigo.

How could he forgive Deep Blue if he didn't even know where one ended and the other began?

He really needed to talk.

He stood up, went in front of the altar, clapped his hands once and folded them together. It was not a Christian custom, he knew, but it did seem rather rude to address a divine (semi-divine?) being without asking for attention first.

"Lord … if you're there … this is Aoyama Masaya speaking. I've heard your story, and I've been wondering how you saw it all. When you died, did you know you'd come back again? Did you really mean it to save the entire world? I didn't – at least, not entirely. Yes, I wanted to fix the damage Deep Blue had done. And yes, I wanted him to stop hurting Ichigo. But most of all, I really just wanted him gone.

"I think it was a murder, what Ichigo and I did. Or a murder-suicide. I pulled him out of our body and she shot him. Was that right or wrong, Lord? Because it was the only way we could stop him. He would have destroyed everything.

"The worst part is, I _miss_ him. Before knowing he existed, I was always taking advantage of him – of the Mew Aqua. I owe all my kendo trophies to him, my reputation – and even Ichigo's life, because without the Mew Aqua inside me, how could I have protected her as the Blue Knight? Now I'm nothing but a human teenager … who has to work twice as hard as everybody else for what used to come naturally."

Memories caught up with him as he spoke, ones Deep Blue's spirit had left behind. Their lives had been so alike in the beginning: just two clever, ambitious boys with many admirers and no friends.

Deep Blue had invented the Mew Aqua in the first place, and used his resulting power and charisma to be elected as his people's leader. What nobody knew was that it was his own experiments, gone disastrously wrong, which had caused the end of the first civilization on Earth and forced them to look for a new home in space. Deep Blue's Mew Aqua-infused soul had haunted the Earth for millenia, still connected to his people by the faintest of telepathic links, as his remorse and self-loathing slowly shifted into hatred towards humans, who were evolving to be every bit as greedy and careless as he had once been. It was not until a certain group of scientists, led by one Dr. Shirogane, excavated the ruins of his city and woke the most fearsome of his Chimera Animae, that Deep Blue decided to take action. He took over the body of the nearest person he found: Dr. Shirogane's colleague, Aoyama Risa, who was pregnant. Her husband Takashi was killed by the Chimera; a depressed Risa died in childbirth six months later. The baby became Deep Blue's next host, which was less than ideal, but adequate for his purposes. And so he waited, watched as the orphaned child grew into a perfect imitation of a normal boy … only to fall in love, of all things, with one of the genetically altered girls who were the pet projects of Dr. Shirogane's son!

Deep Blue had been delighted. What a chance to spy on his adversaries, all while his host body remained in ignorance of his existence. He had even amused himself by tormenting Masaya with a nightmare: Mew Ichigo on her knees, in the dark, sobbing over an unidentified body. He hadn't counted on that dream actually coming true with the death of Kish, or that it would be the trigger for Masaya to defeat him.

He hadn't believed that the love between thirteen-year-olds (including Kish, who had attacked his former master for Ichigo's sake) would last a month, let alone grow strong enough for them to give their lives for each other and for their world.

There was so much Deep Blue had never known.

Masaya, remembering Ichigo's cry of grief for a person she had never even liked, followed her example by kneeling in front of the altar and bowing his head.

"Lord," he whispered, "Please forgive us for whatever wrong we've done. All of us. Pai-san, Taruto-san … Kish-san … "

He hesitated over that last one; it took a lot of effort to forgive the boy who had sexually harassed Ichigo, threatened her life and her teammates' lives, and nearly killed Masaya on several occasions. But he _had _died for her, and after the Mew Aqua had resurrected him and the other aliens, he had made his exit without causing any further trouble. Ichigo seemed to have forgiven him as well; she rarely mentioned him, but when she did, it was to wish him the best with the revival of his homeworld.

" … and forgive Deep Blue, and me. Whether there were two of us or only one, it doesn't matter as long as we find peace. And, Lord, thank You so much for Momomiya Ichigo and all our friends at the Café."

It had not escaped his notice that Pudding and Taruto had formed an intense friendship, or that Lettuce and Pai had gravitated towards each other during battles like a pair of opposing magnets. Both aliens had ended up making the greatest sacrifice for their respective Mews, just as Kish had done for Ichigo, and Masaya and Ichigo for each other.

Now _that_ was love. All he could do was hope, with every fiber of his being, that he would prove worthy of the unbelievable gift he had been given: a new life with Ichigo and their comrades. An ordinary life, with ordinary troubles and triumphs ahead. Or perhaps not quite so ordinary … after all, there was always the possibility that the aliens would come back. Pudding and Lettuce would be thrilled.

Masaya, not wanting to annoy the unknown deity with extra requests, did not say this aloud. Instead he got up, dusted off his uniform pants and bowed a final farewell.

As he left the church, he found that the springtime sun was shining. It was cherry blossom time, and the soft pink petals were fluttering in the wind like so many butterflies.

A little girl with red pigtails and denim overalls was using a tire swing in the house opposite the church. She waved to Masaya and shot him a chocolate-stained grin, without even knowing who he was. He waved back. She reminded him of a smaller Ichigo.

There it was; the essence of everything he and the Mews had saved. Innocence; joy; acceptance; all the best of humanity. Everything Deep Blue hadn't understood.

_Hello, world,_ he thought, smiling as a cherry blossom petal landed in his cupped hands. _It's good to be back._


End file.
